In a first ever survey, conducted jointly by CII and All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE), about industry linkages with engineering institutes, finds that the institutes scored an average of poor 30.9 points on 100 scale basis.

While barely 19% of the total 156 engineering institutes surveyed emerged on top, about 63% institutes had moderate linkages, while 18% were rated poor in parameters ranging from inclusion of industry representatives in the management of the institute, curriculum, faculty, infrastructure, placements and social development.

Another disappointing factor of the survey was only 14.6% participation of the institutes across the country, with only 156 of the total 1070 possible institutes responding to the survey. The survey was based on a voluntary participation open to all engineering institutes that had completed 10 years as on 31 August, and offered at least three out of shortlisted six streams of engineering.

AICTE chairman S S Mantha said that the regulatory body would consider making changes in its accreditation requirements following the survey’s analysis. “So far institutes have concentrated only on getting industry participation in job placements or final year projects. We hope this will encourage industry collaboration in other aspects like curriculum and governance,” he said.

“This is the first ever attempt to encourage a local eco-system by which industry representatives and educational institutes work together to improve the quality of education,” added P Rajendran, CII national higher education committee chairman.